RailWest

Since posting my original request I have had sight of two views from the Eyers collection taken in the 1960s, both looking northwards from the area of the road bridge. In both the UAS is visible in the background - too far away to be as clear as I would like, but there appears not to be any diamond sign.

Sorry, but you are wrong. Indeed, most of the S&DJR track-circuits were on the ex-DCR line! See http://tinyurl.com/lewkly9 . Also, the provision of a 'Rule 55 exempt' diamond was not dependant upon the presence of a track-circuit anyway, although that was a common situation.

The UAS does appear in the distant background in some of the early sequence, but far too far away without sufficient clarity :-( Never mind, some nice bits of film anyway, tho' rather confusing to have a short sequence at Corfe Mullen Jcn spliced in the middle!

>>>>The one going north about 200 yards north of the railway bridge.... That would be it. Since posting my original message I have had sight of a couple of pix from the Eyers collection in the 1960s. Both taken from about the bridge area, so rather a long way without a zoom lens for clarity, but it does /appear/ that there was no diamond. Glad to hear that the BRC is still thinking about a model of BG, I recall a conversation somewhere at an exhibition last year about the arrangement of the sidings in the yard? I would be very interested please in any interior pictures of the signal-box if any turn up, even better if there is a Sykes instrument in view :-)

Photos of Bailey Gate looking northwards from the road over-bridge seem extremely rare, but does any one please know of any (preferably later BR period) which show the Up Advanced Starting signal (No 15) clearly enough to be able to determine whether or not it had a ‘Rule 55 exempt’ diamond sign?

Lady 1 - "I have not seen that Prairie number 4575 for simply ages". Lady 2 - "Yes, another year without Dick; very disappointing". Audience - "It's behind you!" Lady 2 (with big smile on face) - "ooooohh"

>>>The newish Ratio 'box is rather nice and a sort of 'in between' size as far as the lever frame is concerned being right for around 21-23 levers.... It's difficult to tell exactly, but from what I have seen of the publicity pictures for the new Ratio SB interior kit, definitely not a GWR example :-( Do not forget also that the frame type for a ground-level box would usually be slightly different from that of a platform-level or 2-storey box.

I was dubious about the Blue Anchor SB model as well. In order to get the 'right' SB type you need to consider not only the size of frame which it needs to accommodate, but also when, and by whom, the SB was erected in the first place. No good having an early style of box if the design was superseded long before your railway is assumed to have been opened. On the other hand, if you have an 'early-ish' railway, then if you're going to use a box like BA (opened 1904) you will need an ''excuse' for it being of a latter type. EG at BA the 1904 replaced an older box when the passing-loop was added. Other excuses might include station layout expansion requiring a bigger box in a different location or a box getting burnt down and needing to be replaced etc. My 'gut feeling' is that a smaller, older, wooden superstructure type on the platform /might/ be more suitable, but it would depend upon the actual layout.

I wonder why the SDR Museum chose to paint the Ashburton nameplate like that, when the standard GWR scheme was white letters and border on a black background? The Hemyock trains certainly were not fast - in the goods-only days I managed to drive from Uffculme to Culmstock faster than the train despite the 'typical' Devon lanes meaning much braking and little above 20MPH!

I read somewhere once that Prussian Blue was essentially the same colour as Midnight Blue, although whether or not that is true I can not say. However I note that there are Midnight Blue aerosols listed for various car manufacturers, so you may be able to find a reasonable alternative - I suppose it will depend upon how much of a purist you want to be.

I'm beginning to think that RMWeb will fall foul of my web porn filters soon.....

In a spare moment with nothing better to do just before Xmas I sat down to see what might possibly be on TV worth watching - and up popped Capt K talking about the timber traffic from Riverside !! Is nothing sacred any more - not even a whiff yet of another repeat of Von Ryan's Express.....

No, that's Spotify :-) And there was me thinking that Jerry had simply changed to layouts that required (virtually) no signals so that I wouldn't pay too much attention to them at exhibitions

Sorry - I did try it after posting and it worked for me...... Never mind, hopefully you all got there in the end.

A slightly more complex version could be seen in the down direction at Bailey Gate on the S&DJR after it became the junction for the 'cut-off' line to Broadstone, see diagram at www.trainweb.org\railwest\images\sb-diag\bailey-00.jpg . Although the diagram is for 1900, this arrangement continued after the line northwards to Blandford was doubled in 1901 and only changed to 'single arm' signals when the junction was removed in 1905 icw the opening of the new SB and junction at Corfe Mullen.

Except for the white one.....

'Catch' points are trailing, 'trap' points are facing - simples! I can confirm that the Blue Anchor example is still there and springing away every day :-) There used to be quite a few examples of that arrangement on both the Minehead and Barnstaple branches, but BA is all that is left now. The one at South Molton was even better, as it was on a loop line signalled for bi-redirectional running and so had a FPL as well as the 'slot' ! I agree with Stationmaster that the specific mention about the Clearing Point at BA is rather unusual, but his suggestion about nomenclature is as good a theory as any :-)

Easily done :-) At least there won't be a need to send a 'Letter to the Editor' of Model Rail in due course... Some years ago at RailWells there was a 4mm S&D layout on which all the signals were removable for transportation (not uncommon). Unfortunately almost all of them had been inserted the wrong way round when the layout was erected! What I found depressing was that, once the situation had been drawn to their attention, no-one seemed in the least bit bothered to get them corrected. Now, about those missing holes in the backing arm No 12........

It looks great! But I would like it even more if the ground signal No 20 was facing the correct way

>>>the editor may choose to publish an article..... Quite right too! It's well worth an appearance :-)

When I went back to the Oct 2008 issue a couple more things came to my attention <g>, tho' as I've put it back in storage now I've not got it to hand to double-check. But IIRC then in the model the signal-box had the 'HALT' suffix added to its nameboard, but that would not have happened surely until the station became unstaffed in 1938 (?) - assuming I was right in that the model was based in the 'blue' era between the wars. Also, the bargeboards on the SB were painted a light blue colour, but I've never seen any evidence for that either there or elsewhere on the S&D - more like a BR 'corporate image' style :-)

>>>October 2008 was the Railway Modeller issue..... Ah yes, that was indeed the one which I remembered, tho' clearly not well enough to to get the scale right - oops! It was a nice layout, but with a few 'historical contradictions (especially the signalling!) which caused me to send a Letter to the Editor which appeared in the next issue. I'm sure it will improve with your attention :-)

>>>This layout was featured in the Railway Modeller a few years ago... Although I do recall one layout of Masbury in the RM, I think was a club 4mm effort, so what issue of the magazine was yours in please?

Yes, No 17 *is* Highbridge.

I would suggest that Nos 11 and 12 are at Masbury Summit, looking northwards towards Bridge 69. I suspect that No 10 is the same location (and the same lineside photographer!), but looking southwards. Not sure about 8, but perhaps somewhere in roughly the same area????